Last week we saw a fantastic use of 3D printing to perfectly recreate the cast of hit PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII. The characters were created by Joaquin Baldwin, an artist and animator working for Walt Disney Animation Studios. And he didn’t want to keep the models just for himself, so started selling them via online store Shapeways.

Less than a week later, though, and you can no longer purchase any of Baldwin’s characters on Shapeways. The reason? Square Enix’s legal department, of course.

The Japanese company has issued Shapeways with a takedown request pointing out the models break intellectual property laws for characters Square Enix owns. So Shapeways has stopped selling them, Baldwin has refunded any orders that haven’t been filled yet, and he isn’t allowed to print any more for sale. If you did manage to get one of these 3D printed characters shipped, count yourself very lucky.

The reason these models proved so popular is because they recreate the blocky look of the original PlayStation game. Square Enix does not sell such models officially, and has not made it apparent they intend to. So instead of embracing Baldwin’s work, they’ve just killed it, which is a great shame.

I very much doubt this will be the last time such a takedown request has to be issued. However, soon such requests just won’t work anymore. 3D models will be shared, and 3D printers will be installed in an increasing number of homes. Then you don’t need a store to buy anything other than raw printing materials and then you can recreate the models yourself.